Renaissance Furniture.
Furniture and the Renaissance
There was a revolution in thinking in the fifteenth century which was much apparent in the visual arts but fed through more slowly to the design of furniture. Most of what was made was just a reworking of old themes and styles, even in Italy which was the forerunner of new forms of arts at this time. It was in Italy that late Gothic elements were first replaced by architectural forms such as pilasters, rounded arches, and columns. These designs were decorated with motifs borrowed from classical antiquity.
A 16th century carved cupboard attached to a wall.
This included rosettes, toothed friezes, parallel, and egg and tongue mouldings. Where the structure of the furniture had previously been obvious it was now less obvious and greater emphasis was placed on the beauty of the shape of the piece itself.
Interior furnishing of the home was further extended during the Renaissance with hat stands, mirrors, busts, and bookcases. The choice of furnishings were largely dictated by the architectural character of Renaissance homes.
The functional form of the furniture was partly determined by aesthetic considerations.
CHESTS
This new style was found in chests of the time which became one of the main decorative pieces in the homes of the era. At first the chests were assembled from framing and panels which were initially solely decorated with simple geometric patterns. Subsequently the tops of these chests were embellished with human figures placed at the corners and the panels were often supplemented with mythological or historical scenes.
Chests changed shape in the second half of the fifteenth century, becoming more cubic.
The geometric shapes of the surfaces were now enhanced with figurative decorations and also with plant forms. The feet of these chests were strikingly decorated.
CABINETS
Cabinets and cupboards became increasingly more important in the furnishing of homes. At first these had appeared in town halls and sacristies but they now started to turn up in private homes.
A credence table was used as a dresser. This is a two-door cupboard with sliding leaves beneath a folding leaf with quite limited decoration.
Two cupboards were placed one on top of another in less important rooms that were decorated even less. Cabinets sometimes also possessed a slide out or fold-down leaf which could be used as a surface to write on so that they could act as a bureau.
There were also bookcases, with and without doors and chests of drawers.
A 17th century oak pillow cabinet inlaid with walnut and palisander from the southern Netherlands.
BEDS
A higher standard of living brought a further showpiece into homes — the bed. This formed part of the fitted furniture, attached to the walls. The principal end of the bed was raised and at first sat on a chest-like base but this disappeared around 1500.
During the high Renaissance the bed featured superb examples of sculpture. The richly embellished pillars bore a canopy.
TABLES
Ancient stone furniture inspired Italian craftsmen in their construction of tables leading to two or three highly decorative side-pieces, with caryatids, acanthus scrolls, and winged fantasy animals.
SEATING
Great value was placed upon elegance and comfort by people in this era and this is apparent from their stools, backed chairs, and other seats. Regional variations now arose in the different types of seating.
France
The French were the first to be influenced by Italian arts — because of their eager meddling in Italian politics. Hence the first foreign country to adopt elements of the Italian Renaissance was France. The French were attracted by the reverence for classicism and the humanist attitude of the Italians. Italian artists were attracted to their court circles by the French aristocracy and yet the Gothic influences lived on long after this.
The early French Renaissance period saw development of the Frans I style, which saw late Gothic furniture acquire baluster legs, Corinthian capitals, friezes, pilasters, and decorative mouldings mixed with late Gothic characteristics. Chests, buffets, and benches retained an upright Gothic appearance.
Hence chests remained unchanged for a long time but dressers were used to store cutlery, tableware and other valuables.
The centre section was provided with a drawer for storage or was used to set out the cutlery and tableware. The top sat on Gothic pillars. Early dressers had the corners set back at an angle but later examples were more cubic in form as a result of the pilasters and pilaster legs.
The Gothic form of chair was retained but the armrests were raised and new ,architectural’ details were added. Despite the tremendous influence of the Italians, a new generation of French artists emerged who smothered furniture with a wealth of mouldings. These artists were mainly active in south-western France for in the north there was greater interest in functional design with both form and geometry arrived at logically. This found expression in an harmonic blend of neutral framework with modest decoration.
Cabinets were increasingly constructed with ever more slender legs. The body changed and was decorated with rich reliefs depicting the four seasons, the four elements, and ancient gods. Further south the form remained altogether more plump and cabinets still comprised two parts of equal size.
France already led the way in terms of style for the building of palaces for Royalty and the aristocracy by the sixteenth century. These needed to meet the increasingly refined way of life of the nobility. France also led the way in the style of the interior decoration and furnishings of such aristocratic dwellings. High-backed chairs are very characteristic of this era.
By the late sixteenth century, the shape of people was once more a consideration in the design of chairs and chair backs were lightly curved in order to make them more comfortable. Armrests ending with ram’s heads or scrolls rested on small turned column-like legs.
The high back of the Low Countries was exchanged for the low back of Italy. This development ended though when the Louis XIV style prescribed high chair backs. Very few chairs from this time have survived.
The bed with canopy established a firm place for itself in interior design in France in the sixteenth century. These used upright posts in the form of pilasters or caryatids (female muse forming a pillar) in the Italian manner and for the design of their tables too the French looked to Italy. The leaf was carried by two moulded side-pieces in the form of chimeras or Hermes. There are often column supports between the side pieces and the table leaf. Column legged tables were very popular. These had horizontal stretchers linking them in the form of a double T.
The centre of large halls were often filled with tables with six, eight, or nine legs. It is difficult to differentiate between Louis XIII and Louis XIV tables. This often makes it difficult to date such a piece.
Germany
The Italian Renaissance style die not make headway in Germany before 1500. Its adoption is largely due to the German artists Holbein and Durer. A great deal of work was done between 1525 and 1550 with drawings of ornamentation by the so-called ‘minor masters’. Their influence only extended though to the decoration of the surfaces while form and function remained unchanged.
Only the aristocracy really adopted Italian examples. The citizenry continued to use furniture with Gothic style elements until the arrival of Baroque.
Furniture increasingly became more centrally made in France during the Renaissance but this did not happen in Germany, which was largely fragmented at the time. Furniture in Germany therefore differed from region to region.
NORTHERN GERMANY
The greatest response to the new style was in northern Germany, largely due to examples in the engravings of Heinrich Aldegrever. Yet here too the field was not
wide open for greater ornamentation. There were two important types of cabinet: a large one with a Gothic style front with symmetrical mouldings, and a cabinet on tall legs that resembled a French dresser. The first of these types was decorated in a manner also found with chests from the Rhineland and Westphalia where the Gothic style endured. These chests were often decorated with long panels with lettering.
Most northern cabinets were made of oak while the preference in most other parts of Germany was for ash, larch, or deal (pine).
These timbers remained popular until well into the seventeenth century. High relief carving is particularly characteristic of northern German furniture of the time. The carcass was also decorated with allegorical or religious representations such as fertility rites and scrolls on the top moulding and also with sculptures of female muses as pilasters. This type of cabinet was made in Schleswig-Holstein until late in the Baroque era. Another type of piece that is typical of northern Germany is the small but tall ‘farmer’s’ cabinet.
There were a number of variations in type of northern German chests of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The variant originating from Luneburg was the least changed of these from its predecessors. This type was made by joining planks together and it stood on tall legs.
Those from Holstein were supported on chest-like bases and were decorated in the same manner as cabinets from this region. Chests from Bremen had the form of cube that is slightly taller than it is wide.
SOUTHERN GERMANY
There was a marked preference for fine inlay in southern Germany. Italian architectural features were introduced via Augsburg where the local cabinetmakers were very active in the use of exotic woods such as palisander and ebony and also native timbers like maple, beech, cherry, and poplar for inlaying. A characteristic of late Renaissance furniture is the thoroughness of its making. Decorative designs were made by famous artists such as Burgkmair and Holbein. The plinths, centre parts, and cornices of these cabinets gave them a somewhat horizontal appearance. The main lines of southern German cabinets are largely lost beneath a welter of ornamental and architectural detail.
In reality they still consisted of two pieces. The decoration comprised Doric friezes, vines, symmetrical grotesque motifs, egg and tongue mouldings, and triglyphs. The sculptor and architect Peter Flotner exerted considerable influ-
This early 18th century southern German or Czech trois corps or three part cabinet is of amboyna over deal. These cabinets incorporating a secretaire were made from Strasbourg to the Balkans.
The grain of the wood was also allowed its full expression. Southern German chests often had drawers in the bottom and the lids featured decoration divided into panels. The status of chests gradually reduced until eventually they were only found as furniture in farmhouses. Despite this chests were still made in southern Germany, with walnut being increasingly used.
Tables based on chests arrived in southern Germany from France and remained until late into the Baroque period. The influence of Gothic continued to be readily apparent.
Beds were free-standing with canopies mounted on posts with short valances or curtains. Very few chairs of this period from southern Germany have survived and those that have show clear signs of Italian Renaissance and German Gothic.
The ‘farmer’s chair’ with square seat is the simplest form. Extensively carved chair backs and angled legs were adopted from Italy. This type of chair continued in existence until well into the eighteenth century in the Alps and southern Germany. In addition, there were many chairs with square rear legs that extended upwards to form the uprights of the back of the chair. Richly carved horizontal stringers were placed between the legs to make the chair more rigid.
Another widely found type of chair has arms, leather seat, and scissor-legs. A new type of ‘Dutch’ armchair appeared around 1600 with turned legs or moulded balusters that became very popular in the seventeenth century. Folding chairs also continued in use, especially in Switzerland.
The Low Countries
The Catholic southern part of the Low Countries was mainly influenced by the French but the north went its own way. Furniture makers in the north were influential upon sculptors in Mecklenburg and Lubeck.
The preference in the Dutch Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was for inlay with contrasting coloured woods, especially with ebony and rails, balusters, and carved pilasters were greatly favoured. Chests of this period exhibit the same features. Between 1725 and 1750 there was a marked preference for richly carved pieces.
By the late sixteenth into the seventeenth century many homes had a two-storey cabinet with protruding cornice. The upper part of the cabinet was slightly set back.
There were many regional variants on this theme with cabinetstypical of North and South Holland, Zeeland (with tall legged underframe), and Gelderland. This type of cabinet was also much desired in Cologne where they developed their own richly embellished style.
England
There was some small but increasing influence from the European mainland on England during this period. The dominant style was Elizabethan, after the name of Queen Elizabeth, characterised by simple interpretation of French but mainly Flemish Renaissance. Gradually the Gothic pointed arches and rosettes were replaced by heavy baluster legs, friezes, and other classical architectural elements.
The solid oak ‘four-poster’ canopy beds of this era are famous and many can still to be seen in castles and great stately homes.